Sexual Risk Behavior: Factors Associated with the Number of Sexual Partners and Consistent Condom Use among Adolescents in Four Sub-Saharan African Countries

Sub-Saharan Africa is the region of the world where the epidemic among adolescents is the fastest growing. Multiple sexual partners and lack of condom use remain two of the most important risk factors of HIV spread among adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa, yet research on this issue is limited. Using data from nationally representative surveys, this study examines factors associated with multiple sexual partners and consistent condom use among adolescent of 12-19 years old in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Malawi and Uganda. Findings from bivariate probit models show that adolescents who reported high parental control are less likely to have had multiple sexual partners and more likely to have used condoms consistently with these partners than adolescents who reported lower levels of parental control. In terms of policy and programmatic implications, this result suggests that parents’ influence over their children’s behavior, widely assumed to have declined, remains pertinent to reproductive health interventions.

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